Kadur-Pai combination comes up trumps

The Arka Motorsports duo of Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil Pai held their nerves on Sunday to win the 44th South India Rally here, which is a round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (Asia Cup) and the concluding round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2021.

Even as Kadur and Pai celebrated their Asia Cup (India leg) victory on their APRC debut, Chettinad Sporting’s Aditya Thakur (co-driver Virender Kashyap) clinched their maiden National Championship title (overall) although provisionally. Their triumph is subject to the outcome of an appeal that is pending before the Indian Motor Sports Appeal Court.

Meanwhile, veteran Gaurav Gill (Musa Sherif), who had retired on Saturday with a mechanical failure but restarted on Sunday, eventually finished second behind Kadur.

RESULTS:FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (Asia Cup, India round): Final classification (Provisional): 1. Karna Kadur/Nikhil Pai (01 hour, 50 minutes, 04.500 seconds); 2. Gaurav Gill/Musa Sherif (02:07:17.000).

FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship: Overall/INRC: 1. Kadur/Pai (01:50:04.500); 2. Dean Mascarenhas/Gagan Karumbaiah (01:51:08.900); 3. Aditya Thakur/Virender Kashyap (01:52:16.100). National Overall champion (Provisional): Thakur (Kashyap). INRC-2: 1. Mascarenhas/Karumbaiah (01:51:08.900); 2. Fabid Ahmer/G Sanath (01:52.17.300); 3. Rahul Kanthraj/Vivek Bhatt (01:56:11.400). INRC-3: 1. Thakur/Kashyap (01:52:16.100); 2. Syed Salman Ahmed/BK Rishabh (01:54:53.100); 3. Kuber Sharma/Kunal Kashyap (01:55:32.900).

INRC-4: 1. Mujeeb Rehman/Ravindra Kumar (01:59:08.600); 2. Prakhyat Shirole/SSB Arjun (02:01:05.900); 3. Deepak Chandra/CG Raghuram (02:12:37.100).